deaccession

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

transitive v. To remove and sell (a work of art) from a museum's collection, especially in order to purchase other works of art: "He also denied that ... friends of the museum were permitted to buy ... pieces that were deaccessioned” ( New York Times).

intransitive v. To remove a work of art from a museum's collection and sell it.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

v. To officially remove an object from a museum, art gallery or library so that it may be sold.

n. The disposal of objects in this way.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

v. sell (art works) from a collection, especially in order to raise money for the purchase of other art works

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Examples

If a museum has to sell -- or "deaccession" -- something, so says the 18,000-member American Association of Museums (of which the Rose is a member), the money should be used exclusively for the purchase of new objects for the collection.

In what has become an all-too-common practice in the art world, this plan will include the sale, or "deaccession," of 50 works from the museum's permanent collection, among them a Jackson Pollock drawing valued at $300,000 to $500,000 and several Hudson River School and American Impressionist works with estimates ranging from $25,000 to $300,000, according to a prospectus prepared by Christie's.

"The four works at Christie's had been considered for deaccession for some time — because curators felt that we had more important examples by these artists from the respective periods — and the timing was right for us considering the recent availability of a work by Kazimir Malevich."

On top of recommending the council sell, or "strategically deaccession", artworks to make it more financially sustainable, the report suggests amalgamating the art collections of the organisation with those of the government and the British Council.

"Art museums will insist donors give them the option to deaccession, and, conversely, donors will demand ironclad agreements that museums will never sell," says art consultant Richard Polsky, author of the book I Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon).